Standing Resolute
by Azralan
Summary: Title will probably change later. Whenever threats to humanity arise, there has to be someone that deals with them. This is the story of an organization, founded on the ruins of its predecessor, that strives to keep humanity safe. Vigilo Confido, Commander!
1. Prologue: Operation Flaming Arrow

Prologue: Operation Flaming Arrow

Considering the amount of preparation that went into this whole thing, it was surprising just how quickly things progressed, once they were in motion.

The whole operation had apparently been planned for quite some time; it would be the first of many, many more with the purpose of eradicating certain threats that plagued mankind.

For that reason I had been trained, together with other volunteers, to fight parahumans and their creations.

The program and our group itself had a lot in common with the Parahuman Response Teams, if you thought about it. Both were armed forces specializing in combat against parahumans, their creations, and affiliates.

Unlike the PRT however, the organization I was part of operated globally and mostly in secret.

We were a specialized group, founded and supported by a mysterious council or group of some kind – of which we didn't even know a single person – that was supposed to quickly respond to threats and execute long-term operations in already established hostile territory.

Considering the fact that this was the first mission of its kind for the entire program, and we would be deep inside hostile territory, everyone aboard was understandably nervous.

The inside of the Skyranger was barely lit, only a few lamps overhead and the screen with the summed up mission briefing shedding light onto our faces.

These faces showed uncertainty, anxiousness, fear...

Considering our enemy, that was understandable.

"Alright, people. This will go down smooth and easy, just stick to the plan. Scans of the AO indicate low hostile activity. Most of the creatures are distracted by some... surprises we've delivered earlier. Your job is to get to the objective and plant the charges, then immediately evacuate", Central's voice sounded over the speakers.

Central officer Bradford was an interesting man. Apparently, he had been a successful PRT officer before but left the organization for unknown reasons. When the program was formed and he was invited, he immediately accepted.

He was the Commander's voice of reasoning, always assisting in various ways.

Looking at each of my comrades in arms again, I saw steely resolve. We were ready, we had practised and we would succeed.

The Skyranger slowed down and finally landed with a heavy thunk; the ramp opened and we stood up, ready to move out as soon as the signal came.

Our pilots voice rang out. "This is Big Sky, we've reached the AO, Strike One is ready to engage"

"Roger Big Sky. Operation Flaming Arrow will now commence"

And with that, we moved out.

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

As soon as we stepped out of the Skyranger, the voice of the commander was transmitted over the speakers in our helmets. "Alright, the objective is about 500 metres east of you, near a river. If there are any street signs left, it should say 'Joslyn Road'"

That was good to know. I looked over to my squad mates and nodded towards the direction the objective was at.

"Be careful. To get to the objective, you'll have to cross the Main Road, and the enemy's main base is only about one kilometre south of the objective. I recommend positioning two guards near the main road, as soon as you reach Joslyn Road, depending on the amount of hostiles you face"

My teammates and I each pressed our 'Acknowledged' buttons on our helmets; they were an easy and fast method to convey that we had received the transmission and understood our orders, much simpler than four people shouting 'understood' all at once.

We moved onward and it was quiet. Too quiet.

This might sound like a cliché, but I, for one, hadn't caught a glimpse of a hostile creature.

So, without any complications, we reached the main road.

"Hostile spotted! 10 o'clock", came the first shout.

"Enemies sighted! 2 o'clock", came the second.

And then I saw them.

Abominations, fleshy constructs, a mockery of mankind.

The commander gave the go ahead. "Take cover and open fire! Gray, go flank the single one; he hasn't noticed us yet"

Indeed, the abomination I was going to target seemed to have no means of hearing, but it possessed a gigantic nose.

I sprinted forward and dove behind a trash container. Hearing my comrades open fire, their bullets tearing into the flesh of the thin and worm-like abominations south of me, I took aim.

The wounded creatures let out terrifying sounds and emitted green and poisonous-looking clouds.

The rest of my squad was far enough away so they wouldn't get hit... hopefully.

I was just about to pull the trigger when the nose of my target twitched and it roared, charging in the direction of my team, a single, giant eye opening during its charge.

"Shit, I missed!"

"They have eyes, blind them!", Sprout called into the comm.

As usual, she liked to stay back a bit and take aim carefully; she'd probably make a good sniper with that attitude.

I quickly reached for my side and grabbed the flashbang I had with me. Pulling the pin, I pulled my arm back and threw the grenade.

It exploded in a blinding flash of light, confusing the monsters and allowing my team, thanks to the protection our helmet's visors offered us, to fall back and reload.

Sadly, we were only able to get off a few shots while they were blinded since they recovered quite fast; a lot of these actually missed.

Still, one of the abominations fell with a loud gurgling sound, some of its innards splattering on the floor.

The large one opened it's mouth wide – maybe it wanted to roar, maybe it was trying to puke poison or some strange shit; we could have neither, both were dangerous in this situation – and Connaught took the opportunity to throw a frag inside its mouth. A rather bold move, actually.

The large mutant swallowed the thing, making cough-like noises and motions. Soon enough, after the Commander directed our attention to the last enemy, who was trying to flee, the beast exploded and the street transformed into an even gorier scene.

I took aim, praying to god that I wouldn't miss, and fired my rifle.

It hit the shoulder.

Not a particularly great shot, but considering the beasts current style of movement – namely: running on four legs – it was still effectively robbing it of it's fastest possible way of movement.

Next to me, having rushed up from behind cover, Sprout took aim with her scoped rifle; she had added said scope herself, preferring accuracy over large amounts of bullets. Her shots exploded from the guns' barrel, hitting the mutants left hind legs.

The beast sprawled on the ground, only having a functioning left forearm and right hind legs remaining.

"If I may speak up, Commander, the research team would benefit heavily from a life specimen of this sort. It might help us figure out how Nilbog issues commands which, in turn, would help us defeat him easier, a lot easier", Dr. Vahlen spoke up.

Central Officer Bradford chimed in. "If that beast could really be so valuable, we should really consider taking one alive"

The Commander spoke up. "Shen, if you have appropriate means of containment, do you think it would be safe?"

"I'd do my best to properly contain it, Commander. However, the construction of such a facility might take a while and we would have to improvise. Please, remove the rest of its legs and take it to the extraction zone; a separate vehicle would be best suited for transport"

"Alright, if you say so. Strike One, confirmation of the order?"

We pressed our acknowledged buttons.

They were so handy.

"Alright then, two of you take the beast to the extraction zone, the others scout ahead"

We decided that Sprout and I would scout ahead. Mostly because she had the best eyes out of our group, and needed support from a more experienced rookie. I was the one for the job.

Connaught and Hahn moved to separate the beasts remaining limbs to take it to the extraction zone.

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

Sprout and I were moving toward the objective, slowly and carefully. If we were to be noticed by the monsters no doubt guarding the water storage – the objective was a large tank of clean water resting on wooden pillars, sometimes seen in old westerns – we were fucked. No backup and deep inside enemy territory? While trying to sabotage the only clean water supply, something crucial for Nilbog? Yeah, they would never let us go.

I looked around, the objective already in sight, and saw nothing. That was strange.

"Alright people, we've got a clear view of the objective, move in and set the charges", Central commented.

"On our way, the subject has been delivered to the extraction zone", Hahn spoke up.

"Good job, team, this specimen will surely prove valuable to our cause", Vahlen congratulated.

The built-in radar inside our helmets indicated that the rest of our team was nearby.

I looked over to Sprout, honestly expecting her to look back; she was busy scanning the area with her scope.

"Four hostiles near the objective. I've got a clear shot at them, requesting orders", Sprout spoke, very quietly as to not make the enemy aware of our teams presence.

The only thing that wondered me was why they hadn't noticed all that ruckus from before.

As if on cue, one of the abominations swirled around and looked directly at us.

Did we have tailwind? Oh... me and my big mouth, sometimes.

The gangly monstrosity moved toward us, it's allies alerted to our presence by its obvious hostility.

"They noticed us, prepare to engage!", I almost screamed into the helmets built-in microphone.

"Sprout, Gray, lure them away. Connaught and Hahn, move to flank the enemy"

Two swift, automated 'acknowledged''s could be heard.

I turned around and sprinted for cover, Sprout following me. She was moving toward an old fire-escape ladder while I dove for cover behind a trash can.

A smoke grenade was thrown over to us, the mist hiding us from plain view and, hopefully, making it harder for the enemy to hit us.

I activated the helmets heat sensors; these sensors weren't exactly top notch, but they would suffice for this situation.

Apparently, Sprout had arrived at the rooftop because soon a salvo shot rang out and hit the monstrosity straight before me in the head. It staggered back and I took aim for its legs, pulled the trigger and badly damaged its ability to move.

The other three hostiles were not quite as fast as the first but apparently had other abilities.

When Connaught came closer to our location and was about to put some well-deserved shotgun shells into the back of a rather bulky abomination, the creature simply rotated it's torso and hit my fellow rookie, smacking him so hard he flew a few metres before laying there, unconscious.

While Sprout fired freely at the remaining enemies from her high-ground above, I took aim at the enemy that had just smacked my comrade around like a doll.

The bullets flew but the creature was already moving toward Hahn, Connaught lay there forgotten for now.

Hahn took the opportunity and slid between the creatures broad legs while firing into it's... well, where its crotch would be, was it human.

Both remaining creatures screeched in anger as the big one fell to Sprouts shots after it had flinched and staggered at the abuse of its nether regions.

Only two were left and I knew that this might be dumb, but when the smaller of the remaining ones moved nearer and charged at me, I rolled to the side and tried to kick it's legs out from under its body.

'Tried' being the key word here.

As it was, I simply kicked the air, having underestimated the enemies speed.

Thankfully it slid into the wall near the ladder Sprout had used to climb onto the roof, so I was able to take aim while it was dazed and deliver a decisive salvo of shots to its head.

The creature was dead.

The last one, having moved in behind me after the whole ordeal with the smaller one, was just about to attack when the sound of fired rifles filled the air and it was hit from two sides.

It fell to the ground, barely missing me, with a gurgling sound, its – if it had one – soul leaving the realm of the living.

Each of us paused.

The Central officer Bradford spoke. "The AO is clear, great job team. Now plant the charges and move back"

We obliged, Hahn lifting Connaught over her shoulder after taking his piece of explosives and carrying him back to the extraction zone after throwing me and Hahn one piece of the Explosives each, her piece and Connaught's.

I nodded at Sprout and we moved to plant the charges at the pillars of the tower before returning to the Skyranger.

The vehicle lifted off after everyone was secured and the formerly unconscious soldier was slowly waking up.

Just as the ramp closed, the charges detonated and smoke filled the air, the water supplies storage now spilled uselessly over the floor and a feeling of victory overcame us.

"Great job, Strike One, Operation Flaming Arrow was a success"

Our group smiled at each other.

 _A/N: So, how was that? It took me a while, but I think it was worth it. The operation was just awesome to write. Anyway, thank you very much for reading this, criticism in the form of reviews is very much welcome and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it._

 _-Azralan_

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

Central Officer Bradford was there to greet us after we returned, wearing his trademark green sweater.

Next to him stood the Commander, her brown hair flowing down the back of her black sweater, the tall and bespectacled girl smiled. "Great job team. Go and rest up, and ask for a warm meal in the cafeteria, you've earned it.

Overall, it was another successful day and another enemy of mankind was dealt a serious blow.

It was clear that, as the councilwoman would say, we would be watching.

Because we were Xcom.

And my last thought in mission gear was:

Vigilo Confido, bitches...


	2. Chapter 1

Standing Resolute

Chapter 1

 _A/N: Alright, since the first chapter/prologue was surprisingly well received, here is the next one. I'm a little bit of practice since I've been busy and not written anything (except that one bit of MacHebert) in about two weeks. Anyway, I hope you enjoy._

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

The lights above shone brightly and it was comfortably warm, the heat and brightness hitting me as a warm wave as I entered.

The canteen was surprisingly full of life. Everyone had come to congratulate the soldiers who had made the first mission a success. There had been no life-threatening injuries and after a brief check up in the hospital wing, each one of them was free to do whatever they felt like. After an experience like that, a hearty meal sure was a good idea.

It raised the morale, at least.

"Ah, Central, welcome. Please, sit down and have a warm meal, we've just finished preparing a warm chicken stew. Great job, by the way"

"Ah, yes, please. That would be nice"

I nodded at the helpful personnel and went to sit by the soldiers, awaiting the arrival of the food.

Connaught, although he had been injured during the mission – albeit only slightly – was already spinning a tale around the whole adventure. At least I'm pretty sure there hadn't been twelve of those beasts attacking them.

"Yo, Central, how's it going. Man, that went well, where's the Commander?"

The Commander wasn't the most sociable person and the fact that most here were at least twice her age didn't really help matters. She was reliable, of course, but it might do some good to see her down here with the others more often.

As it was, she opted to stay in her room most of the time, either thinking about the next operation or reading up on more strategies and tactics to use. She took her job seriously.

"She decided to stay upstairs for now, but she might come down later", at least I'd try to convince her later on, this was a major experience for the entire crew and if the head of our organization wasn't there, what kind of victory celebration would it be?

"A shame, really. Did a rather good job back there", I didn't even have to look to know who was talking, Gray always spoke in rather short sentences. She was the type that had a rather pessimistic view of the world... or at least her own luck.

Gray took a sip from her glass filled with yellow-y liquid. It was a specially designed liquid functioning as a substitute for real beer, designed to have the same taste but keep consumers from getting drunk. Always useful, and I personally enjoyed it as well, it was really helpful to keep the soldiers calm with its familiar taste but sober in case of an emergency.

"Can't be helped, I guess...", Sprout commented. She was a rather pragmatic one, efficient in the battlefield albeit always seeming like she didn't have quite enough sleep. She was kind of a night-owl though, so that explained it.

I really got to get the Commander down here...

Oh well, that still had time.

Over the curse of the next hour, the soldiers and I laughed quite a lot. Stories were shared – some of which were probably made up at least partially – and we played some card games. It was still only early evening but some troops went to their bunks already.

I was just about to go get the Commander when the speakers blared to life.

" _Commander to the research lab. Commander to the research lab"_

Well, I guess I should meet her there.

"Sorry, guys, I gotta go", a shame for the food, really.

"Yeah, see you around"

I took the staircase to the research lab, the corridors only lit by very few ceiling lamps. When I arrived, the Commander was already there; I gave her a nod of acknowledgement that she returned.

Dr. Vahlen spoke up.

"Great that you could make it, Commander, Central. We have just finished setting everything up. Since its delivery, our research team has prepared a few tests for the specimen and we seem to have gotten results surprisingly fast"

"What kind of results, Doctor?", that was the Commander speaking, her brow furrowed in contemplation.

"A basic neural scan shows an underdeveloped brain, they seem to function almost entirely based on instincts. What's more surprising is the specimens aptitude for the sense of smell. It reacts to certain scent particles in the air and receives... some kind of commands that way. It seems as if Nilbog himself does not have a mental connection to his... 'subjects', but rather communicates with them via their sense of smell. The only question is if this is active or passive... the research team hopes for the latter"

"I suppose we can use this to our advantage, right?"

"We can, indeed", Vahlen clicked a remote and a projection appeared on the wall to our right.

"It's... a grenade? What does it do?"

"Well, there are several possibilities... We could either fill them with a strong odour that would confuse the creations, or we could fill them with a pheromone we have discovered to mean 'attack'; the creatures will do just that when exposed to this pheromone, even themselves"

"So we either break their chain of command, or we let them go berserk on each other... What do you say, Central?", the commander turned to me, "One's more appealing if we want to negotiate with Nilbog, the other if we want him quickly disposed of. But, can we even negotiate with him?"

"I, personally, would prefer the second one, Commander. Disposing of him is our priority, after all. We can't know if he can be trusted"

"But we also have to keep in mind that he will be weakened after our last attack... his supplies will be low and, even if his creations might not need the fresh water, Nilbog himself certainly does... He will be weakened, regardless of which decision we make. It might be more beneficial to have a way to break their chains of command... And the odour might prove useful against other enemies in future operations"

I hadn't considered that... good that we had our Commander, I suppose.

"Very insightful, I agree"

"Then we'll take the first option, anything else?"

"Not for now, but we are working on an armour upgrade for our soldiers, it's just basic ideas so far, nothing too revolutionary"

"Of course. Then I'll leave you to your own devices, Dr. Vahlen. Have a nice day"

The Commander turned to leave after Vahlen acknowledged her decision and I followed her, walking closely behind.

"You know, you should probably head to the canteen, from time to time. It would really help with the soldier's relationship to you"

She kept on walking.

"It might also familiarize us, but when I seem too friendly to them, they might just stop seeing them as their superior officer and start doubting orders", she turned her head to me, "From time to time, I can agree with that, but it might not be a good idea in the long run", she looked down to the floor, "But I suppose you're right. Today was a successful day... I guess I'm going to the canteen. I'm hungry anyway"

She actually went to the canteen, after that. It surprised me, I hadn't expected that.

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

The days after that had been quiet.

The soldiers had their normal routine, the engineers continued with the construction of the base, the Commander and I made plans for the next attack on Ellisburg and its 'King'...

And the research crew had finished the special grenade.

That day I found myself in the chambers of the preliminary testing location.

We would try the grenade.

I stood inside a brightly lit room, several monitors hanging on the walls and at smaller desks around us, most being used by members of the research staff. Before me was a large and round chamber with two entrances to it, one on each side. The walls were made of special glass, so it couldn't simply be broken by anything lower that a Brute 4's level of strength.

One of the doors opened and the Commander, who had previously been focused on her discussion with Dr. Shen and Dr. Vahlen, moved her gaze upon the creature that was led in by security personnel in hazmat suits.

"It certainly didn't get any less ugly in the last few days"

"Yes, it did not", Shen seemed to agree.

Once the creature was secure and in the middle of the glass chamber, the doors were sealed and the specimens bindings were remotely removed. The creature seemed confused but defensive.

Dr. Vahlen spoke up.

"As you can see, the specimen is mostly defensive by nature, only Nilbog's or other creature's commands turn it aggressive. We will now commence the test"

In the ceiling of the chamber, a small hatch opened and a cloud of gas streamed in. Immediately after it rolled into the chamber, the huge nose on the thing twitched and it turned aggressive, howling and striking the glass.

"It is important to note that the commands linger for a bit, even if they aren't constantly being sent. We will now add the grenade"

Out of a second hatch, a smaller one, this time, a spheric, only vaguely grenade shaped ball fell and, upon contact with the floor, exploded into brightly coloured gas.

The creature was still in 'attack mode', even as the new cloud reached it, but it soon seemed confused and returned to a more defensive stance, carefully sniffling.

The aggressor hormones were still being inserted into the chamber.

"It works surprisingly well"

"Yes, indeed. It looks like the test was a complete success. Take it back into it's cell"

The ventilation turned on and the gas was sucked out of the chamber, the creature remaining defensive. The first hatch reopened and another gas streamed in. After a minute, the creature fell asleep.

Then the sealed doors opened again and the personnel from before went in to secure the being, returning into the dark corridor behind said doors soon after.

Dr. Shen turned to us.

"Well, I guess it's time to talk about these upgrades Dr. Vahlen has undoubtedly told you of before..."

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

The next days were mostly spent planning the next assault.

Satellite scans had shown us an increase in activity at the target destination; Nilbog was very likely preparing to defend his 'kingdom'.

Or maybe he was having a child-like temper tantrum after the first strike and wanted revenge of some kind, how he thinks he may get it was beyond both me and the Commander. Most likely he would just amp up his troops to hit ours extra hard once we go in there.

It was a good thing the research team's scans of the example specimen had shown that they indeed needed water. Not filtered water, unfortunately, water straight out of a river was enough.

And we couldn't just poison their water supply without damaging the region around Ellisurg as well; stopping the river there from flowing was also a bad idea since the water it provided was needed for electricity and consumption.

The only thing we could hope for was that Nilbog didn't have a way to filter water himself and would slowly dehydrate.

In any way, we had decided to leave them be for some more and see what they'd do.

We had just finished the emergency invasion plan, should Nilbog somehow manage to break through the walls surrounding Ellisburg, and leant back in my chair, the lamps overhead shining brightly onto the table where our now finished plans lay when the monitors to the far left activated themselves.

" _Transmission incoming. Accept transmission?"_

"Accept", the Commander agreed to receive the message.

" _Contact established"_

A dimly lit room appeared on the screen, a neatly dressed figure, its face shadowed out from the light source behind and slightly to the left of it. Our contact to the 'council'.

"Hello, Commander", the councilwoman greeted in her smooth voice... as always when I was with the Commander during these transmissions, the councilwoman only acknowledged me when it was truly necessary. "We have reports of a group composed of parahumans spreading fear in the area of Hazukawa, Japan. They seem to be a group of Endbringer cultists and a rather new one at that"

Endbringer cultists weren't anything truly new, there were several groups around the world that thought of the beasts as gods or angels sent to cleanse humanity or some other stuff. While they weren't an all too serious problem, they could still be a persistent bunch if you didn't snuff the flame out at its first ignition.

And most groups like these were composed of civilians, not parahumans.

"How many parahumans are we talking about?"

"So far the group has been reported to have three parahuman and about a dozen unpowered members. Your job will be to secure the area, direct any civilians caught in the crossfire to a designated safe spot near the Yasaka Shrine and, if possible without great risk, capture the members alive"

Capturing wasn't exactly our speciality so that part might be harder than it sounds.

"For this mission we provide your team with a selection of containment foam grenades; there shouldn't be anything in the way of capturing the targets. Good luck, Commander. We will be watching"

And with that, the screen went dark before showing the symbol of our organization.

"Well, Commander. Looks like we have something to do... No break between things, ugh"

The Commander smiled sympathetically at me. "Come one, Central. Let's get ready"

And with that, we left the room to head for the main operation room.

 _A/N: And that's it. It took a while since I didn't get to write a lot these last few days, but I'm rather proud of it. Anyway, I hope you had fun reading this. See you next time._

 _-Azralan_


	3. Operation Exploding Casket

_A/N: Alright, I took my precious time, but here's the next chapter... now featuring almost 300 words of briefing via Bradford..._

Operation Explosive Casket

Once again the interior lights of the Skyranger shone humbly, the vehicle's passengers tense and anxious. This would be our second mission and we were unsure of what might lie ahead of them. It was one thing to fight against monsters, another to fight against parahumans.

Although it could be argued that sometimes, those two are the same.

We had been prepared for this. Somehow, command had been able to grant us access to containment foam grenades. Now it would be our turn.

Three parahumans, about a dozen unpowered members.

We didn't have a name for the group yet, but an immediate assault as their first action spoke a lot about their intentions.

Probably a group of fanatics trying to 'help' the Endbringers in their mission to destroy humanity.

How anybody could align themselves with such a cause, I would never truly understand.

Our mission took us to a densely forested area near a river. Any ground not belonging to a forest was built on with small houses or used for agriculture.

The screen at the one end of the seating area turned itself on and Central Officer Bradford started his briefing.

At least command didn't have to sit inside this thing for hours on end...

"Alright, since the target group has already started the attack you should expect a certain degree of destruction. They seem to be content to rally the area's inhabitants onto a bridge crossing the river dividing the area. They will soon have finished with their preparations, I assume that they will broadcast themselves executing the inhabitants while announcing themselves.

"This will be your time to act. They will all be at one point and the unpowered members won't be a problem afterwards. They are armed with basic weapons, mostly standard issue bats and only very few handguns.

"We only have little information on their powers, all only observed very recently. One seems to be capable of low-range teleportation, a younger girl of about sixteen years of age; she still needs sight of her destination, however, so she should be easy to handle once the foam strikes.

"There is a hydrokinetic, able to lift about 60 litres at once and catapulting those at a fore of approximately 1000 Newton. Don't let it hit you or you'll have bruises for days, maybe even some broken bones if he gets a lucky hit on you. He wears a blue cape and black mask. He is the only one we have a name for, since he was involved in some robberies before. He calls himself _Kurokajiki_ or Black Marlin, translated.

"Their third members is mostly a mystery, we only now that he or she wears a black overall and uses throwing weapons. Likely a Thinker/Mover combination. They are accurate so be prepared.

"The safe point is the nearby Yasaka shrine, it will also serve as your entry point. Good luck team, you might need it."

"This is Big Sky, Strike One has reached the Area of Operations, preparing for the assault."

The Skyranger slowed down as it lost altitude.

We looked at each other and nodded, one last time checking our arsenal.

The ramp opened...

"Strike One is ready to engage. Operation Explosive Casket will now commence."

[Vigilo Confido]

The area outside the Skyranger was rural as far as we could tell at a first glance. The Skyranger landed on the shrine's grounds, protected by the foliage around it.

Our newly promoted sharpshooter surveyed the area for safe spots, preferably with a higher elevation. It was Sprout's job to scout and provide additional fire, after all.

The heavy gatling gun felt comfortable in my hands, I had gotten used to the weight since I got promoted after the last mission. Needless to say, the Commander had been impressed with my flashbang trick.

In addition to the gun, I had a special contraption strapped to my back, its purpose was to spray an area in front of it with containment foam. Hahn carried one as well, her new shotgun at her side, as did the new addition to the team.

David Spencer was an ex-soldier of the American army. I didn't know him very well but he was enthusiastic and committed enough.

Connaught wasn't with us this time as he was still recuperating from his last injury; the Commander was better safe than sorry when assigning her soldier's missions.

As it seemed Sprout was in luck; the shrine was slightly elevated and she had found a spot to the north of it that gave her a clear view of the target area.

The spot was, in fact, a larger tree that she began to climb. It gave her perfect view of the fields next to the group of houses the screams came from.

I nodded to the rest of the group and gestured for them to follow me. We would head through the woods west of the target area and plant the devices in three locations. The estimated range of the was fifty meters so we had to lure our enemy close to the woods once the devices were set and ready to go.

I got nods of acknowledgement and they followed.

As my group continued forward and Sprout made herself comfortable on the tree, setting up her equipment, the Commander's voice rung through the comm units.

"Alright people, I want a clean mission. No major deviations from the plan that haven't been authorized before execution, either through your field commander or me. We have a basic voice file into the helmets. Press the third button on your helmets to play the file. It's a simple message that you should use in case of contact with civilians. It basically assures them that you're the good guys and they should head to the safe zone, the Yasaka shrine.

"Since this is Japan and none of you speak their native language the reasoning behind this voice file should be self-explanatory."

I checked for the button as we continued, the sounds of my companions armour moving made it clear that they did the same.

We had almost arrived at first placement position when Sprout announced her findings.

"X-Ray one located. Positioned north-east of you. X-Ray two located. Positioned approximately ten metres east of X-Ray one. X-Ray three's location is unknown. Civilian located, east of you, hiding behind a house, peeking around the corner."

The professional way she conveyed information appealed to both me and the Commander, it was useful in the field.

Before I could activate my comm the Commander conveyed the same message I had just attempted to: "Spencer, deploy your device and move to the civilian with a lowered weapon. Don't put your finger off the trigger, though, X-Ray three is still missing."

Spencer did as he was told and carefully made his way towards the civilian after he set up the foam launcher.

These foam launchers were originally some kind of tennis ball launchers... the scientists modified them.

He seemed to be alright so Hahn and I continued onwards.

The next location was only ten metres ahead, after all. I set mine up as well.

"X-Ray three located. He's checking the area from the roof of a taller building to the north."

Alright, we were still in the clear and the devices were set. Now we just had to wait for Spencer to finish up with the civilian and-

The reflection of X-Ray three's throwing weapons in the air interrupted my train of thought. The weapons were headed in Spencer's direction.

"Shit, they found me. Taking cover. Careful, X-Ray three is a Brute, the weapons embedded themselves pretty far into the wall. Good news: his aim isn't impeccable."

"I got my eyes on X-Ray three. Permission to shoot?"

"Shoot to wound but not kill. He isn't a teleporter so once we got him injured he'll be easily dealt with."

"Understood.", the sound of Sprout's rifle shooting sounded through the air.

"Missed the target. Bloody guy's got superhuman reflexes. Relocating to another position."

"Acknowledged. Gray, Hahn... move to engage."

"Understood.", I nodded to Lena and we headed out of the cover the trees provided us with.

The residents of the area were all clustered together in the middle of the open space before us. The hydrokinetic that called himself Kurokajiki stood upon a podium before them, shouting something in Japanese.

The ninja guy – X-Ray three – had apparently noticed us and shouted a quick command to the teleporter of their group. Immediately X-Ray one turned to us and initiated, a wicked looking sword in her right hand.

I jumped back when she appeared directly in front of me. My first idea was to use the foam grenade each of us had equipped but she was too close and she might have a manage to teleport away in time.

I decided on the next best thing and pointed my gun at her face, letting the barrels spin but not shooting.

She reacted as predicted and teleported behind me, right into Hahn tackle.

We had gone over this scenario before, teleporters weren't all that uncommon, after all.

Hahn tackled her down just as the ninja guy was onto me, throwing his weapons while running towards me with a short sword at the ready at his waist.

I barely managed to dodge but forgot Hahn was behind me so she got hit in the shoulder and let go of the teleporter girl who promptly whacked her across the head with the pommel of her guy was closing in fast but shots interrupted him.

Spencer had finally decided to get into the fight himself.

The ninja guy had to stop in his tracks which gave me the time to point my gun at him.

Sadly, he didn't seem intimidated and just drew his sword as I pulled the trigger.

The information we had on this guy estimated him to be a Thinker three at most...

The fucker blocked all of the bullets with his sword. Yep, he was a ninja, alright.

I continued to hold the trigger, aware of my ammunition but wanting to give Spencer and opening to get him and take him down.

A shot rang out and ninja guy cried out in pain as Sprout's bullet entered his left knee, shattering it.

I took the opportunity to knock him across the head with my weapon and pin him there.

A mass of water hit me and swept me off of him.

X-ray two had decided to quit watching after he had been shot at by Spencer. Overall, this was good for us but I couldn't help but curse my luck... I hated water.

It was a good thing the armour was mostly waterproof, though.

I briefly looked back and saw Hahn in a fight with the teleporter girl, both without weapons and grappling on the floor. It seemed as if the girl had forgotten her powers.

X-ray two charged at me as ninja guy crawled out of the way. Spencer meanwhile was next to the civilians playing the audio file while aiming his weapon at the charging X-Ray two.

The former hostages understood and ran towards safety.

Shots rang out and Kurokajiki was hit in both legs. Spencer had used his time well and actually hit him!

Another shot rang out, apparently barely missing Hahn as X-Ray one was immobilized as well.

The pain was enough distraction for Hahn to smack her across the head with all her strength and knock the girl out cold.

"Hahn, get away from her.", I pulled out the containment foam grenade at my belt and pulled the pin, dashing away from my position.

X-Ray two, after having his legs shot at fell to the ground and slid towards me, his concentration lost and powers more or less useless.

I threw myself to the ground and got barely out of range as the grenade went off, covering X-Ray one and two in foam, effectively neutralizing them.

Ninja guy was crawling away but had to stop when he noticed the barrel of Spencer's gun next to his head.

X-Ray three raised his hands in surrender, dropping his weapons. Just for good measure, Spencer shoved him into the semi-hardened foam to his friends.

Central Officer Bradford's voice came over the comms: "The AO is clear, no hostile activity detected. Operation Exploding Casket was a success."

And we didn't even need the Explosion...

 _A/N: And this is it. I took my time with this one, but I think it turned out alright. I'm not really good at writing combat scenes in general but I think this was okay. Anway, thank you all for reading this and have a wonderful time._

 _'See' you soon,_

 _Azralan_


	4. The Art of War

It was a Monday and once again I was debating whether going to school was such a great idea. I wasn't quite sure, not anymore.

I knew I needed an education to achieve _something_ in life, that was just how the system worked.

I didn't like it one bit.

When I got on the school bus – the other kids were avoiding me just like always – excited chatter met my ears, even more so than usual. Something was up, I could practically smell it.

The bus wasn't in the best condition – it belonged to Winslow, after all - and as I made my way to the back of the bus, the area where I usually took a seat, I managed to pick up the word 'test' several times.

I was quite confused.

Now, normally high school kids talking about a test wasn't a particularly strange occurrence but kids from completely different years? That meant one thing: it was either an official, governmental test or some kind of fancy organization wanted to collect some data.

Considering Winslow's general popularity among the high class, it probably meant the second one was true.

Some kind of organization wanted data... how peculiar.

I suspected it was some kind of study on the effects of a violent environment on children in school and their grades; if they wanted to make the state shine with glory they'd go to Arcadia High, the school the Wards went to.

I wasn't particularly interested in the whole affair. If they pulled out grade data they would notice mine being near the bottom.

Sabotage could do that.

Yeah, I was pretty much done with society as it was. Crime was spreading – living in Brockton Bay didn't help the matter, either – and nobody seemed to pay attention to the little, unpopular people.

Just look at the Dockworker's Union or me.

Focussing back on the present, I took my seat and pulled out my favourite book.

Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" always helped me to focus, helped me endure.

The reason a girl my age was reading literature intended for generals and businessmen?

You could say it was a remnant of my mother.

When she died both dad and I were devastated. She had left behind a void that needed to be filled somehow and when my dad showed me my mother's favourite book, the same I was holding then, I found out that my mother had been interested in stuff like that.

And since I didn't have anything else to fill the void, I threw myself into studying something that would make mom proud.

I wasn't particularly sure why she had been so interested in military tactics – maybe she was more interested in the uses in business – but I found I had a deep passion for it as well.

Over the next year, I barely let "The Art of War" out of my clutches and when I did it was only to pick up another book on the same subject.

The bus came to a stop as I read my favourite quote of the book: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

This sentence was the line I had in mind when I basically re-entered society after mom's death.

I had this quote in mind when I observed the people around me.

I hadn't been that observant before, though... I just hadn't noticed any sign or reasons why my best friend might betray me, and maybe there just had been none.

Her betrayal and the bullying campaign I went through after that just served to burn the quote further into my mind.

I'd never want to fight against an enemy that was unknown again... ever.

As the children trickled out of the bus I noticed sleek black cars parked in front of the school. If there was a private organization here to collect data, they were filthy rich.

The other children stopped before the school's doors; director Blackwell stood before them, a man in a black suit next to her.

"Now, today took an unexpected turn of events. Mister Smith here is part of an organization that's currently visiting high schools and having their pupils participate in certain... "assessment tests". He will lead you into the main hall, so please follow him diligently. You will not need anything from your locker since they will provide you with everything you need for the assignment.

"You know about the rest. Since it's a test I didn't want to hear about any cheating, drinking's allowed but eating is not... yadda yadda. Now go."

She stepped into the school and the so-called "Mr. Smith" - I doubted that was his real name – gave us a quick once-over. Then he, too, stepped inside, expecting us to follow him.

As we continued through the halls we passed the girl's locker room...

The stench was intense and I was glad I wouldn't have to go in there for now.

 _A/N: So yeah... this is a sort of short glance back at what happened before Operation Flaming Arrow... These short chapters will come out every now and then and I'll probably publish chapters in this order: Current X-Com/John Bradford PoV ; Battle Scene/Doreen Gray PoV ; Flashback Scene/Taylor Hebert PoV_

 _Thank you all for reading this and the previous chapters and for the reviews._

 _'See' you soon,_

 _Azralan_


	5. Chapter 2

I was exhausted. So terribly exhausted.

Working tirelessly for several weeks straight ought to do something like that.

But it was all worth it, in the end.

Pushing through the veil of sleep that was about to envelop me again, I slipped out of bed, still groggy about the whole thing and made my way to the dresser to get some fresh clothes before hogging the bathroom for a morning shower.

I loved my work, really I did, but it was just so exhausting.

Thankfully, my bullshit thinker powers helped with the lack of sleep.

I thought about all that our group had achieved over the last few weeks as I rinsed my hair.

We had gone from a small group of four tinkers to a group of ten people; not all of us were tinkers, though.

I had all begun when we received those strange readings and later published the article about them.

My specialty was crucial for our work since I mostly dealt with communication technology. That specialty was painfully obvious just from my name and I wasn't entirely sure if it was smart to have my specialty in my name: Herald.

I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off, properly. I hated having my long, brown hair wet.

Our base of operations was in Zürich. We had decided on this city for several reasons, one of them was that two of us grew up here.

Me and Gabriel, or 'Eftiel' as he called his cape personality.

His name was some weird, butchered written version of the pronunciation of 'FTL', which was short for 'faster than light'. This accurately called out his tinker specialty.

We had this idea about faster than light – instantaneous – communication since we found each other tinkering in the city. I remember how we met... We were both looking for scraps to use for our inventions on the same scrapyard, barely outside of the city.

Then there were 'Mixer', a cape from Berlin whose specialty lay in the connection of different devices, and 'Blitz', another German cape from Saarbrücken whose specialty was construction power sources that were either really efficient or could store a lot of energy.

We had all come together by happenstance, really. There was this big technology exhibition every year in Bern and we had met there, gotten friendly with each other, intoxicated and accidentally spilled the beans about us being tinkers.

I got dressed and made my way out of the bathroom and through the main corridor of our 'base'.

The instantaneous communication device we had constructed a prototype of would revolutionize space travel... should it ever come to be available again...

Fuck the Simurgh.

After a few months of working together, we had a rough idea of how to do this properly and built the basic core of the machine we had envisioned... That was when we got the signal.

It had been so different from anything else I'd seen before and I specialize in communication devices.

The apparatus we had constructed used some kind of incredibly complex waves to communicate... Like nothing that had ever been seen before.

And because they were so marvelous... well, let's just say we got creative with the naming process. We could have called them 'superwaves' or something... but that just wasn't right. It went into the right direction, though, because compared to any kind of wave previously seen this one was like it was... hypercharged.

And so we named this type of wave Hyperwave.

We hadn't been able to decipher the initial signal we had received and we were both too afraid and lacking the capabilities to send a signal back... we needed a better machine.

I greeted one of our few security guards at the door to the main lab. A quick retina scan and I was inside.

The lab was bustling with activity and it seemed like there was no order at all even tough it was divided into a few sections.

We had to organize it like that... with thinkers in one corner exchanging ideas and trying to explain their lines of thought and tinkers in another, working on improvements and whatever else they deemed fit to have on the eventual finished product.

After we had published findings and asked the government for funding – an effort that was sadly shot down rather quickly – we were desperate for resources. We _needed_ to find a way to finance our project.

And so it came that we accepted a deal a peculiar visitor offered us one day.

The woman with the sleek business suit and the fedora had arranged for all this to happen. I wasn't sure why she made the effort. Maybe she just wanted to contribute to the advancement of the human race but somehow I doubted that. Something else was going on, I thought.

With the funding problem resolved and several new personnel introduced to the project the results we produced became greater and greater.

I looked up at our creating... It was truly a masterpiece. The key that would enable interstellar flight once we got rid of that pesky, oversized bird cosplayer.

The Hyperwave beacon stood there in its full glory, or, well, the prototype did, anyway. There were certainly some adjustments that could be made but for now, we would have to prepare it for transport.

Another, bigger research facility in France had offered us assistance and we had accepted. The beacon would be transported to Marseille soon. There were just some last things we needed to install to get it working properly.

And so I greeted the others – Eftiel, Blitz, Mixer, Mindmap, Gedankensturm... - and we started our last work session for a while...

[Mutare ad Custodiam]

"Yes... Of course, she's alright... Yeah, she gets along really well with the other children... Sure, I'll tell her... Yes, the toothbrush. Don't worry, we had one extra... We'll remind her... Sure. Now, Mr. Hebert, I'm terribly sorry but we'll have to continue this next time, little Chloé has a question... Of course, sir. To you as well.", I pressed a button on my headset and the call ended.

Man, this guy could be such a worry wart.

The Commander looked at me sympathetically. "I'm sorry you have to do this every now and then."

I smiled a little. "Don't mention it. But your father can be really tiring, sometimes... He really does care, you know?"

She looked away for a while. Her reaction was understandable, Mr. Hebert hadn't been the greatest of fathers these last few years, at least according to his daughter.

"I know, I know... I just can't help it. I guess I'm still a bit hurt about it.", she sighed. "I know it's not his fault but I can't help but blame him... he should've noticed _something_! At least that's what I tell myself."

I knew pressing the matter would be a bad decision so I just nodded in goodbye and gave her usual advice about meeting with the soldiers at the bar and went on my way.

I decided to pay a visit to the bar myself, we did just manage to put three parahumans down, after all.

[Vigilo Confido]

The bar was almost always full of people. Since X-Com was a full-time response force, there were always some people resting and some wide awake. The chance to get a mission was always there, after all.

Although we only had two missions so far.

Everyone was in high spirits after the last one, though. I could totally understand that; the Strike Squad did just manage to bring down three parahumans without casualties or injury, after all.

Sadly, somebody had to tell them about our plans regarding Nilbog. If we waited for much longer, the chances of him somehow recovering would rise.

Once again I sat down for a bit with the brave men and women of X-Com, tasting victory on my tongue in the form of a low-percentage alcoholic beverage.

Just one wouldn't hurt, after all.

We spoke for a while, just relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere. After a while, though, I decided to inform them of our next target.

"Alright, I hate to bring down the mood but I have to inform you of ur next target. Tomorrow we'll deliver the final strike to Nilbog and bring him down. It won't be an easy mission, I hope you realize that."

Their faces looked thoughtful, a far cry from the amused expressions they sported just seconds before.

Hahn spoke up with a question: "Do we know who will be going yet?"

"None of you who participated in today's operation, at least. The Commander doesn't want to put unnecessary stress on any of you when we have enough soldiers available.", I turned to a blonde woman with a bob cut sitting a few metres away, "We'll need a field medic out there, though, so you going will be certain, Metaxas."

She nodded in understanding. "I'll do my best, Central."

With that said I left them to their devices. They knew what was best for them, they were grown-ups after all.

 _"Commander to the situation room, Commander to the situation soon."_

Our announcement system interrupted my thoughts and I decided it might be best to see what that was about.

Taking the elevator upstairs and arriving at the situation room, the big screen that normally showed a map of the planet with special parahuman events highlighted instead showed the usual image when a transmission as accepted. The young commander was already in front of it.

I stepped up next to her and she turned to me in greeting, slightly nodding her head in acknowledgment.

The screen darkened a little and the silhouette of the "councilwoman" could be seen.

 _"Hello, Commander. We hope you excuse the sudden call but we have dire news. At approximately 5:30 pm today a transport unit with the mission to safely relocate a new communication relay prototype from Zürich, Switzerland to Marseille, France was attacked by a group of previously unknown terrorists."_

I looked at the large, digital clock we had hanging over the entrance of the room: February 12th, 2011, 6:15 pm. They reacted quickly on this one.

 _"After quite... extensive research our sources have been able to confirm the group's participation in several 'tinker tech raids'. Thankfully the prototype is equipped with a tracker to allow constant surveillance of the object._

" _Your job will be to retrieve the object and eliminate any opposition. We will proceed to upload the tracking software to the Hologlobe. Good luck, Commander."_

And with that, the screen faded to the XCOM symbol.

"Well, Commander", I turned towards the girl and saw that she, too, saw the humour in the situation, "It looks like Nilbog will escape his fate yet again. I stand by for your orders."

She spoke with confidence, a far cry from the voice she used to have a month earlier, and told me to get the soldiers ready and informed.

"Looks like it's time for work again. A never ending watch.", I gave a salute, "Vigilo Confido, Commander."

She smirked and held her hand to her heart. "Vigilo Confido, Central."

 _A/N: Alright... this chapter took some time. Mostly because I wanted to keep going with the 'system' I came up with but also because of lack of interest in this story for a while. I'm currently on an XCOM hype again, though. Just played through EW again and got some new ideas for soldiers._

 _Anyway, please leave a review if you want to ask anything and/or have some constructive criticism._

 _PS: I'm not sure if FFN does it automatically, but I'll have this chapter in block format, just to see how I like it._

 _PPS: If anyone knows what changing of the viewpoint or something similar like that means in latin, please leave a review. (If possible it should be in the style of 'Mutare ad Custodiam'. I know Latin is a really... finicky language but I hope to find something there... else I'll just keep using 'Mutare ad Custodiam' for POV changes)_


	6. Operation Dream Retrieval

**Operation Dream Retrieval**

Once again I sat in here, the lights barely illuminating the inside of the Skyranger as we flew to our destination.

I really couldn't help but be nervous, considering what happened to me last time. I really didn't like to be smacked across the head by some mutated _thing_.

Good thing I had my new baby with me.

My shotgun rested comfortably at my side and the new grenade each of us had been given helped matters as well. Still, it was obvious that we all were nervous, especially since I was the only one that had seen combat so far... at least the only one of this group that had seen combat during our tie at XCOM.

Each one of us kinda knew what he or she was doing but a successful mission required more than just individual skill. We needed to be able to trust each other and to cooperate well. We also needed to be able to trust the Commander's decisions.

This led me to another one of my worries.

I was supposed to be the glue holding this group together during this mission. I had made experiences in the field albeit only a few.

The screen switched to a bird's eye view of the AO and we saw what we were after.

Next to a road, smoke rising from its engine, stood a transporter more on the medium than the large side. The railing framing the road had broken away next to it, presumably when the driver had lost control of the vehicle.

 _"Alright, Strike One, your target is in the transporter. Considering the enemy went for stealth expect light resistance. Maybe six to eight enemies. Your job is to secure the area and eliminate any hostile activity. Avoid damaging the vehicle any further."_ , Central Officer Bradford briefed us on the situation at the site.

The Commander's voice chimed in. _"Big Sky will let you out behind high cover. The enemy will notice our approach, however, so expect them to prepare during what limited time they have. Use whatever rocks and trees you find as cover. One or two of you might want to use the hills as high ground if you trust your aim well enough."_

Each of us acknowledged her message in one way or another. I could feel the Skyranger slowing down and checked my equipment one last time.

The vehicle rumbled as it set down and the ramp opened to let us through.

We glanced at each other one last time and made our way outside.

" _This is Big Sky, Strike One is ready to engage."_

Immediately the Commander's voice came through our comms. _"Müller, Krause: you take the high ground. Makhuba: stay near them. Connaught: Move straight to the fallen tree ahead of you."_

I sprinted forwards, noticing some stones and trees to my left which the enemy might use as cover.

"Careful over there, don't get too close to the trees.", I gave my squadmates a fair warning.

" _Acknowledged. On overwatch." , "Overwatch." , "On overwatch."_

I looked around, no-one there.

Apparently, it wasn't so quiet back there.

" _Enemy Contact."_ , my helmets interface showed me the approximate location of the hostile trooper: he was hiding behind a rock NNW of me.

The sound of Krause's rifle firing bullets filled the air. _"Enemy wounded."_

"I'll flank him. Going in for the kill."

I jumped over the fallen tree trunk I had crouched behind and sprinted over to the rocks. I closed in on my target, quickly took aim and shot my rounds.

The bastard had apparently been alerted when he got shot and barely managed to dodge to the side.

He leveled his rifle at me and I flinched back causing him to miss as well.

" _I've got him in my sights."_ , Müller came to my rescue and attempted to shoot him.

Whether through luck or skill, his bullets hit home and my adversary fell.

I wanted to give my temporary hero a nod of acknowledgment but I spotted another one out of the corner of my eye.

"Enemy contact!"

Using the 'quick-marker' button on my helmet I ducked behind the stones after giving away the hostile's position.

Apparently, he had noticed the gunfire – it would have been more surprising if he hadn't noticed, to be honest – and fell back towards another tree... right into Makhuba's line of sight.

" _Dammit, I missed."_

And unfortunately, her shots went wide.

The bastard took aim and fired near at Krause's position, right next to Makhuba behind a tree on the small hill.

The sound and sight of his rifle firing had me worried for a second before I heard Krause's response.

" _Close call, he missed."_

" _Press onwards, get him. Connaught, flank him."_

"Got it, Commander."

I ran towards the guy, crouched next to a stone near him and took aim.

As it was, he saw me coming and ducked further behind the tree; my shots hit the cover's bark instead and I cursed myself for my bad aim, resolved to spend some hours at the HQ shooting range to fix that problem.

Krause sprinted towards me and took cover near me, on the other side of the stone I was crouched behind.

His shots didn't miss, somehow magically finding their target.

Showoff.

The bullets made his target stagger and opened an opportunity for Müller to go ahead and finish him off, the lifeless body falling to the floor.

" _Target neutralized."_

Seriously, surrounded by showoffs.

Makhuba went ahead and took cover at our collective 'cover stone'.

" _Good job, everyone. Take a breather, that wasn't the last of them."_

I was just reloading when the sound of a rifle penetrated the air and I felt incredible pain.

I quickly turned around and saw that some asshole had decided to sneak up on us while we were busy with his comrade.

Krause came to my rescue, however, and shot the bastard who sadly didn't go down quite yet.

I, despite the pain I felt at that moment, took aim with my shotgun and hoped for the best.

To be honest, I didn't expect to hit him. My performance so far hasn't exactly been stellar.

But I did hit.

"Target down." I managed to say as Makhuba took her Medkit from her belt and sprayed the contents at me.

 _"Shut up, you big baby. You'll be fine."_

And it did. Quite so.

Thankfully, the pain subsided after a moment.

I had no idea how these Medkits worked but damn they were useful.

Only problem? That was the only one we had with us for this mission.

Sucks, I know.

Thankfully, we had three of the foam grenades from the last mission left. Now, I hadn't been there but I _had_ seen the recording of the whole thing. Apparently, these little things were insanely useful.

" _Don't take any more risks. If you see a group of enemies, use your grenades."_

Yep, just what I thought.

We only had one problem... There wasn't any cover ahead of us, except the railing of the road... Still, we could see our objective on the other side of it and at least that meant our enemies couldn't charge at us without noticing them again.

Our group went ahead, taking cover behind trees and stones, carefully moving towards the truck.

" _I think I heard something. Ahead of us, to the left of the objective."_

" _Hold on, I'm gonna scout ahead."_ , Makhuba moved towards the road's railing, staying ducked.

I was tense – we all were – and waited for the almost certain enemy she was going to spot.

" _Contact. He's moving towards the other railing."_

The Commander's voice came through our comms, relaying orders.

 _"Makhuba, on overwatch. Krause, Müller, move forward and shoot. Connaught, next to Makhuba."_

While I was moving toward my squadmate I already heard the guns of the two Germans going off. About fifteen metres and light cover should be doable.

" _Shots wide./Missed."_

Or not. Fuck.

Suddenly, Makhuba fired her rifle, narrowly missing the guy that I only just noticed was moving towards the one side of the transporter. At least she surprised the guy as he immediately hunkered down behind next to the trucks back wall.

I saw movement in the corner of my vision and another bad guy – this one with a stylish yellow bandana covering his mouth – came at us from the right, positioning himself next to the bent railing the truck had crashed into and readied his rifle, taking aim and shooting at Makhuba.

The bullet hit her left shoulder and she hissed in pain.

Meanwhile our still alive enemy to the let his rifle wail, thankfully not hitting his target, instead barely missing.

" _Connaught, grenade the right ones. Makhuba, shoot the one at the truck."_

Aye, Commander. I quickly drew the grenade after moving a bit closer and threw it at the foe cowering behind the railing.

It landed directly at my targets feet and he was already diving away with fear evident in his expression when it exploded, covering him in containment foam.

I imagine he was both relieved and shocked at being safe but also disabled.

Meanwhile, Makhuba's shots found their target and the thief fell to the ground in pain, unable to move.

It was a little strange to work with safe containment means _and_ lethal force but I figured we'd just take prisoners we managed to and eliminated anyone else.

The leftmost guy also fell, his chest pierced by my other squadmates' rounds.

At that moment, we all took a breather. Almost done. Hopefully, there wasn't anybody going to ambush us when we opened the door of the truck.

We briefly looked at each other and moved forward at the Commander's behest.

Krause and Müller took to securing the front side of the vehicle while Makhuba and I went to the back to see if anybody was left on that side.

"Are you okay? Is the bullet stuck?", showed my concern.

She looked unsure. "I don't think so, but I could be wrong. Hurts like hell, though."

I tried to lighten the mood a little bit while my eyes roamed the area, particularly the small hill. "Don't worry, the docs at base work wonders."

Her lips formed a bittersweet smile. "I sure hope so."

Something flashed into my right and I shoved my companion away. "Look out!"

Three rounds made their way into my right side and I kneeled over in pain, coughing.

Makhuba rolled to her feet and fired at our attacker who recoiled as the bullets hit. He sprinted for cover but was picked off halfway to a fallen tree by Müller who had come sprinting around the corner after hearing the enemy's rifle fire.

The guy fell to the ground, blood pooling from his back.

"Shit, come on, get it together. We'll be done soon."

They helped me up and I nodded gratefully.

Krause came to us and we moved towards the transporter's door.

Slowly opening it we lay our eyes upon the objective. The pulsing beacon we fought to reach.

"Central, this is squad leader John Connaught. The objective is secure."

" _Great job, Strike One. Prepare for extraction."_

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

 _A/N: Alright... this took an incredible while to write and I'm incredibly out of practice, as one might notice during the second half. I tried a combat movement and cover system or this chapter with a predesigned map instead of one straight out of Google Earth. Let me know how it was._

 _Did you like this style or should I return to the old system of not having a system at all? Or should I just do the shot percentages with the new system and the rest like before? Please let me know._

 _-Azralan_

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

We had just arrived at the base when Makhuba and I made our ways towards the Medbay, supporting each other.

They had offered me a stretcher but I declined, probably out of some idiotic sense of pride...

We just reached the door and Makhuba reached for the open button when she hesitated. I looked at her, waiting for her to open the door when she turned around and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

"Thanks for taking that bullet for me, John."

She pressed the button and moved inside while I stood still, baffled into silence.

Lehana turned around again with an amused smirk. "You coming or not?"


End file.
